Chapter One Hundred Six

This entire psalm is a song of thanksgiving to the Lord for the deliverance of the Hebrews from their dispersal among all the nations (Ps 106:3). The circumstances under which it was written are indicated in Ps 106:36-38. The Hebrews were occupied with the restoration of destroyed cities, the planting of vineyards, the sowing of fields, and received from their labors a bountiful harvest. Throughout the psalm there is no sense of disappointment or sorrowful feeling, nor is there mention of the building of the temple and obstacles to that work. From this one may conclude that the psalm was written after the return from Babylonian captivity but before the time of the building of the second temple, when the schemes of the Samaritans and certain disorders in the internal life of the Hebrews themselves had not yet had time to become apparent. The name of the writer is unknown.

In the psalm, a praising invocation of God, repeated four times, divides the entire psalm into five parts Ps 106:2-7; Ps 106:9-14; Ps 106:16-20; Ps 106:23-30; Ps 106:33-43.

Let those delivered from the enemy and gathered from all quarters of the earth praise the Lord! There they endured every kind of privation, but the Lord heard their cry and led them to a place of settlement (2–7). Because they did not obey the Lord, He humbled them with calamities, and when they turned to Him, He brought them out from their bonds (9–14). The weight of affliction was such that it threatened them with complete destruction, but repentance before God saved them (16–20). Their dwelling in captivity resembled the condition of sailors during a storm, when waves threatened to sink the ship and destroy all who were on it. By the will and mercy of the Lord the storm is calmed and they reach their desired haven (23–30). What was formerly transformed into a wasteland and devastated, now the land is settled again, built up with cities, its fields and vineyards worked, bringing forth abundant harvest. Its inhabitants increase in number, while their former oppressors perish. At the sight of such a fate the righteous rejoice, while the wicked hold their peace; everyone wise sees this and understands the mercy of the Lord (33–43).

Psalm 106:3. and gathered them from the lands, from the east and the west, from the north and the sea. By “sea” here is meant the Red Sea, through which the Hebrews passed at their departure from Egypt. In the entire verse all four cardinal directions are indicated to denote all places of Israel’s dispersal, from which it was gathered again to Palestine.

Psalm 106:4. They wandered in the desert on an uninhabited path and found no inhabited city; The picture presented here of the Hebrews’ wandering through the desert should be understood as an image of the oppressed moral condition of the Hebrews in captivity, from which they strove toward their native Palestine just as a traveler from the desert strives toward inhabited places. “Found no inhabited city” – more precisely one could say – they neither found nor sought a place for permanent settlement, since from the prophecies they knew that captivity was not eternal, and likewise the dependent condition of life from the authority of pagan rulers and dwelling among pagans aroused a thirst for the restoration of their former independence and independent life both in religious and in civil and political respects, which they had lost together with being taken from their native land. In such a condition of captivity and disposition, the plains of Babylon did not appeal to and attach themselves to them, but rather the mountains of Palestine.

Psalm 106:7. and led them by a straight path, so that they went to an inhabited city. The Lord gave the Hebrews a direct path for their return to their homeland with the reign of Cyrus, who permitted and facilitated the return of the Hebrews to Palestine.

Psalm 106:9. for He satisfied the thirsty soul and filled the hungry soul with good things. The joyful feeling of return to the homeland is compared with the feeling of satisfaction of the thirsty person quenching his thirst and the hungry person satisfying his hunger.

Psalm 106:19. But they cried out to the Lord in their distress, and He saved them from their afflictions; Psalm 106:20. He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their graves. Dwelling in captivity is compared with confinement in a dark prison, where the condemned are destined to perish, if they had not been saved by the “word of the Lord,” that is, the promise given to the Hebrew people, by which the Lord promised to return them from captivity in case of their repentance, which He now fulfilled. The Hebrews, of course, could not count on recovering their lost independence by their own strength because of their small numbers, lack of organization, and weakness.

Psalm 106:23. Those who go down to the sea in ships, doing work on the great waters, Psalm 106:24. see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep: Psalm 106:25. He speaks, and a stormy wind rises and lifts high its waves: Psalm 106:26. they rise to the heavens, they descend to the depths; their souls melt away in distress; Psalm 106:27. they reel and stagger like drunkards, and all their wisdom vanishes. Psalm 106:28. But they cried out to the Lord in their distress, and He brought them out from their afflictions. Psalm 106:29. He turns the storm into a calm, and its waves are stilled. Psalm 106:30. And they rejoice because they are stilled, and He brings them to their desired haven. The helplessness of the captive Hebrews and the insecurity of their existence and life, left to the whim of the arbitrary Eastern pagan rulers, unaccustomed to taking into account the needs and requirements of their subjects, especially the captives, likened the Hebrews to sailors on ships caught in a storm on stormy seas, when any wave could easily threaten and sink their weak vessel. But the Lord saved them from this abyss and safely brought them to the longed-for haven, to Palestine.

Psalm 106:33. He turns rivers into a desert and springs of water into dry ground, Psalm 106:34. fruitful land into salt marshes, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it. A picture of the condition of Palestine devastated by wars and enemies. According to the customs of warfare in the ancient world, the entire enemy country with its springs, fields, forests, wells, and not just the warriors alone, was subject to devastation, and therefore where life had once thrived, with worked fields and springs, after an enemy attack a desert appeared, having neither springs nor wells; cultivated plants, without human support, perished, and salt marshes and the like grew up.

Psalm 106:35. He turns the desert into a lake, and parched land into springs of water; Psalm 106:36. and settles the hungry there, and they build a city for habitation; Psalm 106:37. they sow fields, plant vineyards, which yield them abundant fruit. Psalm 106:38. He blesses them, and they increase very greatly, and their cattle do not diminish. Entirely the opposite now occurs, when the former owners settled here again, beginning with love and persistence to work the abandoned fields: Palestine bloomed again and the Lord rewarded the laborers with a bountiful harvest.

Psalm 106:39. They were diminished and fell through oppression, affliction, and sorrow, Psalm 106:40. He pours contempt on princes and causes them to wander in the wasteland where there is no path. Psalm 106:41. But the poor He raises from their affliction and multiplies their families like flocks of sheep. Psalm 106:42. The righteous see this and rejoice, and all wickedness closes its mouth. Psalm 106:43. Whoever is wise will observe this and understand the mercy of the Lord. The former oppressors, that is, the Babylonians, perish, while the righteous, that is, the Hebrew people, are restored. In this whole history of captivity and deliverance from captivity the hand of the Lord is clearly visible, protecting the pious, and therefore in observing the course of historical events both from the life of the Hebrews and from the contemporary pagan monarchies, the righteous rejoices, the wicked is silent, and whoever is wise cannot fail to see here the manifestations of Divine mercy.